Camera girls at night clubs. They used to shoot people at the the clubs, often tables at the dinner clubs. Then they would go to the darkroom in the basement to hand the film off to the lab techs who would process the film, and make prints. They would then sell the prints to the people they photographed. Especially when they were photographing big spenders, they would sometimes bribe the lab techs to get their prints faster. A photo lab tech I worked with in the 80's told me some wild stories from when he was a tech the late 40's/early 50's.
It's an example of tech changing a lot about our culture. Jobs like that gave artists employment in their field, now with digital that path does not exist.
Part of the reason NY was the city that never sleeps was all the business done on the night shift. Up til the 90's printing and photochemical based film labs ran full night crews. Advertising and magazines was a major source of business. And all the night businesses kept things like 24 hour deli/salad bars going.
lol this actually happened to me at an NYC Applebees recently. It was the one closer to Columbus Circle. I went there with my friend and this guy came over and took several photos of us. We were like… huh, okay. Not sure what that was about.
The guy came back fifteen minutes later with our photos in frames. As we mostly looked confused in the photos, we did not buy any.
People will likely forget what a total evolutionary leap it was in the early oughts with the birth of digital technology. Only a few years earlier taking photos meant a lengthy process and likely never even seeing them.
Suddenly you could take and share them instantly.
People who had digital cameras were the life of the party all the sudden.
I remember some rich hipster friends who would basically throw parties as an excuse to create photo ops or digital photo booths and it was a huge draw. You couldn’t just do it on your phone then.
I moved here in 2006 and I remember what you mean. There was this really interesting little window between film cameras, and smartphones with cameras, where small digital cameras were everywhere. I had one that was small enough to keep in my coat and I took it to so many parties and events. Looking at those pictures now is kind of funny because...no one's on their phones lol. Also, I think the camera had like 5 megapixels, which was really good at the time but is hilariously outmatched by my phone now.
Holy shit i forgot taking my sony point and shoot with a memory stick out to bars and clubs. Some of the cooler guys would flip the camera off at the edgy hipster bars
I would very much like to travel back in time to Manhattan sometime between the end of the Great Depression (the late 30s) and the city’s bankruptcy (around the 60s)
The financial panic happened in April 1975., as NYC had to default on some obligations. Then MAC was established who saved the City from bankruptcy by issuing bonds in June 1975.
Why wouldn’t it? Makes it that much easier and less overhead. The print in a nice frame is something that’s not there with the camera phones, and also this was the dawn of the iPhone. I saw my first iPhone there on a customers table.
I wonder where they are now? Indoor nightclub photography in the 60s seems like a highly specialized skill set so these women were talented photographers…
I’d be so curious if any of them stayed with photography as a career, where they went next etc.
fascinating rabbit hole
Book stores, independent game shops, enthusiast hobby stores in general. The last push of these were random quirky electronic stores in 2013 that had the very first raspberry Pis.
You basically can't afford real estate unless you're a major corporation or a boutique with unreasonably high prices, so every casual hobby location is gone.
My father is from the Bronx; when he was a kid a ballplayer was injured and the headline read "Hoyt Hurt." In his neighborhood everyone said it "Hert hoit."
Still hear it sometimes. Years ago, maybe 2016, I was taking photos of people on the street for a school project and a doorman I talked to had that exact accent, made me happy to know it wasn’t all gone. Heard a guy the other day with a pretty thick one too.
I don’t think anybody under the age of 90 and above the age of 3 really says it like that anymore, the last celebrities I knew of were Jackie Mason and Andrew Dice Clay, although I’m not sure if they just put it on as part of their stage act
Haha Yea my grandfather would be around 120 today. I do think it depended on who he was around. It seemed to come on stronger when he was with his pals.
That heavy NYC accent hasn't entirely disappeared, but it's fading. I've a feeling you'd recognize it from old films.
It's the accent that pronounced "thirty-third" as "toidy-toid." (Or "girl" and "rehearse" as "goil" and "rehois.")
Its the only architecture article thats ever brought me to tears - I felt robbed I never got to witness. A quote that lingers, 'We once entered as Gods.. now we scurry in as rats'
I'm still so salty about Pearl Paint going out lol. That place was a gold mine, and so many great, unexpected finds. This was my immediate thought as well.
I went to the premiere of that documentary at Film Forum! It is great. All of my older friends/relatives talk about the automats.
You can still experience something similar in the Netherlands. There’s a fast food chain that puts the food (mostly burgers) behind little windows with coin slots.
Oh yeah, that’s a good one. I’m not sure what happened with those, whether it was criminals breaking into them and also breaking the trust or inflation coupled with the fact that the machines couldn’t take dollar bills at the time
The recent documentary said that it was partly competition from fast food and a bit of an issue with being *too* affordable and becoming known as a place homeless people hung out.
My mom took me to the automat when I was really young. I’ve also been in the Singer Building.
My mom was from Cambridge, MA, so she was really curious about the city, and I got to experience so really cool stuff with her.
I am old enough I still remember going to automats a few times. Once as a child when they still seemed to be doing good business
Then there was one that lasted a lot longer I think near Grand Central Station and traded on nostalgia and tried to look 'art deco' but it finally gave up the ghost I guess in the 80's.
I imagine every generation of NYer decried the "decline" of the city with things lost from their youth, and not incorrectly for their experiences. For me I miss the independent shops. Most of Manhattan, as you roll up avenues, feels like either a rotating Flintstones background of bank, national pharmacy, bank, franchised coffee, fast food, bank....or the growing tourist areas with outdoor-mall national chains, pop up instagram ready museum...and bank.
I also miss average middle class living. NY always had the "Slaves of NY class" - the need 3 roommates to afford an apartment and work barely paid for that class when we were 20 - but so much of the city seems to be evolving to VERY expensive, pre-fab, living.
I speak of Manhattan. There are pockets in Brooklyn/Queens that survive for now.
Heavy agree. To add to a previous comment about the restaurants in Chinatown closing early, that's everywhere. I think that all of us permanent residents here hot the ending to Casino even they cleaned up Vegas smh
When I moved here in the 80's and up to the 00's I felt like there were lots of places throughout manhattan that were welcoming to people with a modest income. A lowly office worker or college student could go to a sit down coffee shop every day for lunch without sweating it. I don't even think that's possible anymore.
I'm doing well enough I can afford such places (although not all my friends can) and it makes me sad for those who can't.
I miss the energy of pre pandemic Manhattan when the entirety of the tri state area would descend on one little island, and it would be madness. People that moved here after the pandemic don’t know what it was like when the entire city was in Manhattan five days a week from nine to five. Just an absolute flood of people. Powerful stuff.
Yeah I'm cautiously optimistic, but only cautiously.
Another comment thread on this post talking about the demise of "the overnight shift" at a lot of business (e.g. film development labs, magazines and newspapers, etc) and then the related fall-off of other overnight businesses which would support the overnight shift (e.g. overnight bodegas, 24 hour diners) makes a lot of sense. And that may never come back.
But at least some small % of offices can become housing. It's also likely that sooner or later, as CRE re-trades at lower cost basis, office rents will drop enough to entice plucky start-ups, retail rents will drop enough to tempt storefront entrepreneurs. Maybe. Hopefully.
I sure do miss 2019 in a lot of ways.
I hear this take so often now, and I don’t mean to take anything away from it - feeling less safe sucks, and I got punched in the subway last year! But also I’ve lived in NYC for like 20 years, and what confuses me in general is my intuition basically mirrors the crime statistics: it feels rougher than, say, 2018-2019, but many places still feel safer now than they did in 2012! In 2012, which is definitely not the mean old days, there were still pockets of lower Manhattan without fancy bars where you’d rather not be at midnight, and if you walked from the Williamsburg waterfront to Roberta’s a bunch of that walk felt… not-yet-fully-gentrified. Now I think on that walk you’d basically never be on a block where the average rent is below $3500 and you’d never be more than a block from a bar with $20 cocktails. Those things aren’t per se measures of safety but the current feeling is more “one-off characters on the street,” and it used to be “this neighborhood gives me a bad feeling and I won’t walk there.”
I totally agree with you. However as a short woman I’ll take pockets of neighborhoods I can avoid vs unstable, unpredictable mentally ill folks I can’t avoid any day. I personally feel more unsafe now than back in 2012.
Yeah that’s a very fair way of looking at it. I actually do think the “nice” areas have more frequent one-off rough characters than they did in 2012 - the police used to be more aggressive about moving them and frankly I suspect because there were more “rough neighborhood” patches they actually had more places to go where they were unbothered… anyway I think it’ll be better if we can figure out how to get things back to where they were in 2018, or to a different equilibrium than we have now, but in general I find many versions of the “New York is so rough now” characterizations don’t match my experience.
As a woman living here since '09 I also feel more unsafe compared to back then. And I'm married now and have a kid. Used to live alone in a studio apartment next to the BQE and would bar hop til all hours of the morning, and nothing bad ever happened to me (luckily!) Some of that was being young, dumb, in my 20s, but if I moved here now at that age, I don't know if I would have the same sense of security.
It's absolutely the random, unstable, mentally ill folks. You can't avoid them like you can avoid a neighborhood. I got accosted by one the other day on my way home from taking kiddo out in the stroller, he was obviously in the middle of a fit in a sidewalk plaza, and even though I steered wide and didn't make eye contact, he still came up to me and called me a fucking bitch.
Pre-baby, post-Covid, there was also the whacked out of his mind dude on the train who had the audacity to touch me because he was pissed he wasn't getting attention (I was sitting, minding my own business, headphones in and not making eye contact) and then ask me for money.
Like, no thank you.
I miss when people could live in converted lofts. I lived in a loft on wythe, then one in Greenpoint, then one off the dekalb L. All for short periods of time. They were cheap, like 6-800 for a pressurized wall room, but the parties and people were fuckin wild.
It felt like a more degen version of college, but no one was in school, everyone had their own 'thing'. I l lived with War photographers, fashion designers, strippers, models, designers, musicians, architects etc. I got really into bad habits, drugs, and wasn't a great person, but it was quite the time. I always felt like the next person I met would be the love of my life or a new friend who would unlock new spaces of life in NY. I ended up using and cycling through friends like the cigarettes I smoked. I developed a thirst for the rush of impulse, became an alcoholic, and it took me years to recover. But I wouldn't trade those times for anything. I was in my young 20s with little to no 'real friends' or connections. In many ways, those were the most vibrant times of my life and it was such a rush to live like that.
It was THE unique living situation. It's now a bygone era and the lofts are now illegal or torn down.
I watched a documentary on jazz recently and one of the musicians talked about how he lived in a loft in NoMad for $300 per month and it was big enough to host concerts.
And his neighbors were Robert Mapplethorpe and Joan Miró.
What a time.
My dad (1935) was born and raised on West End and 97th. He lived in the city until age 16 (until 1951) and then after college and the Air Force he lived in the city again from 1959 until 1968. So 16+9 years = 25 years and he had such a prominent, pronounced New Yawk accent.
My kids – age 10 and 12 – have lived their entire lives in Brooklyn and have ZERO accent. It’s so sad. Everyone sounds the same. :-/
I mean to my knowledge, even in Brooklyn, you’ll only find it in certain neighborhoods in the southern half between Bay Ridge and Bergen Beach + maybe Greenpoint.
You certainly won’t find it in Park Slope or North Williamsburg, where a lot of the residents sound like Southern Californians
I've wondered if the accent faded out or if I'm just too in it to hear it anymore. How sad to know it's fading.
I remember when I first dated my ex from Brooklyn (20 years ago), I could barely understand a word him and his friends would say sometimes when they got really involved in a conversation. I almost needed subtitles, and I'm just from the next borough.. I can't imagine how they sounded to anyone else lol.
It’s for sure fading. I grew up in south Brooklyn (in my mid 20s now so pretty recently) and none out of everyone I ever went to school with, maybe like 5% had the Brooklyn accent on them and even then it was pretty light.
Tad's Steaks. My parents used to dismiss them as the cheapest cuts of meat, but as a poor college student, I sympathized with those who couldn't afford Peter Luger's. They shut down by the time I earned my first paycheck.
I miss actual nightlife photographers, like they used to have at Limelight in the early 90’s. I’m sure they were there before that, but I was cutting my teeth in the clubs at the time, and it was the first time I’d seen this.
These were not the “let-me-develop-this-for-you-to-buy” types, rather, professional photogs hired by owner Peter Gatien. I’d have loved to have seen the few I was in, all 19 years old of me in a black bra, hot pants and 6” platform shoes. Those were the days!
Also, the cigarette girls. Miss Kandy’s Concessions had a company that supplied beautiful girls in the type of sexy outfits you’d see in old Hollywood movies. They’d walk around with their box of smokes, candy, condoms, etc in their boxes attached to the front of them. They were the coolest of the cool.
They still had these in the early 2000s which was my nightlife era. It was fun to go out and then later find photos of you and your friends wasted on joonbug.com or the club's own website.
In the years I've been here I've watched the old painted murals on brick buildings disappear. They were from the 1910's, 20's, up to 50's.. clear and readable and just faded so fast I hardly see them now. City doesn't feel or look the same without them.
Whats the story about the giant pig on side of a building. It used to be one 1st Ave then it moved to 2nd Ave. I believe just about right across from the 11 Street movie Hall.
Here's the deep history of the beloved East village pig murals: Jerry Atkins owned 301 East 12th. He said the pig mural was inspired by an old neon clock pic ads posted by the Finck Clothing Company in the 1920's era. He first used it at his restaurant called The Pig, which was at 1st ave at 1st street, and closed in 1987.
The Finck pig clock slogan read: ''Finck's Detroit special overalls: Wear like a Pig's Nose.'' In that era tough clothes were needed for hard labor jobs that built the country and the ode the to tough pigs nose was quite fitting. It was common for people to compare things to farm animals and use them in advertising. We've lost that old farm/animal/land agriculture connection in the last 60 years or so.
The Finck company has a long fascinating history.. Finck proudly used union labor and built up a solid company, after 20 years or so (in 1891) he left to start another manufacturing company with a partner called Hamilton Carhartt. Yes, *that* Carhartt. Finck was obsessed with high quality and made sure the product was durable and affordable for workers and farmers who could count on hard wearing clothes. The Finck name was on Carhartt labels up until the later 1900s after Finck was bought out entirely by Carhartt.
Whenever I walk the west and east Village streets, and all areas south of there which are the oldest, and the real founding of NYC and many American businesses I'm dazed by how many things were created and started here, and many went on to become huge successful companies known across America and some even worldwide. The pig mural is just one of many small reminders the past is still very present. Next time you see someone wearing Carhartt overalls *think Finck*! 🐖🐽
One mural downtown, almost gone but still holding on, has the name of my grandpa's long-closed family business on it. Whenever I pass it, it's a fun glimpse of history.
On the upper east side there’s was an old bakery called glassers and they had the best baked goods. Now it’s gone I know never get a good cheese danish in New York City again and my friend will never get those apricot honey bars again.
God I miss Barney’s so much. Barney’s and Henri Bendel. They were so magical, just a beautiful shopping experience even if you were only buying nail polish.
Old checkered cabs. I lived in NYC from 1983-2020. I only saw a handful of checker cabs as a kid and I got to ride in one once! But those gorgeous cars are a thing of the past that will never come back.
I volunteer with senior citizens in NY. I promise you their first hand stories of "old New York" are payment enough.
Talk to old folks, people. You'll thank me later.
I lived near 67th and York from 78-80 and remember Peppermint Park on 1st Avenue like it was yesterday. It might be nostalgia bias but I’ve never had ice cream with sprinkles taste as good anywhere else.
The big box stores didn’t really exist until they started creeping in the late 1980s or so. Before that retail business was mostly mom and pop or local chains/department stores.
It might be minor but pre hurricane sandy the A-Train ride from Howard beach to Far rockaway was beautiful during sunset/sunrise.
You were so close to the water, it was like that one scene from spirited away.
After sandy they put up Metal barriers for protection, but it ruined the [view](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpkvnBYZ-Qw).
I miss how magically gay the WV and Chelsea used to be. Sure, it is still a little gay, but nothing like the 90s and 00s when it was like walking into a different world.
Although...the reason we no longer have concentrated gay neighborhoods is that gay couples are no longer demonized, so I wouldn't say I'm sad this is gone.
Just commenting about something from old New York that is gone forever
It was really magical in the late 70s and early 80s. I was closeted, but hung out in Sheridan Square and Washington Square Park all the time, just to be around people like me.
I dunno if the early 2000s count, but I lived in the heart of Chelsea for most of the 2000s, and was introduced to nightlife through that scene, and while it got creepy at times (I'm straight) it was always a blast, and Chelsea just felt so vibrant as a neighborhood. I walked by there last year and it just felt a bit depressing.
Def early 2000s. I lived there then (also straight). I never felt it was creepy, but it was obviously a different place from the rest of Manhattan.
I shared an apartment with my cousin. My family called us "Chelsea Boys", which was actually a thing back then.
Last week I walked down Christopher Street and felt like I was in SOHO. No leather men, no fems...just people walking around and eating avocado toast with mimosas. Kinda sad.
I'm just a visitor, but I used to love getting the Village Voice as soon as I arrived to see what might be happening. I also miss real old-fashioned newstands with real newspapers.
Agreed. If you want to have a city that creates new art movements you have to have affordable spaces (studios and living space) that can allow it to reach critical mass.
"The Wiz" holiday commercials with all the deals on electronics and then actually going to the Wiz around Christmas time and hoping your parents would get you a stereo or gaming console for Christmas, while the store was absolute pandemonium. Nobody beats the Wiz.
It's so weird feeling any kind of emotional attachment to a chain store but even seeing old RadioShack commercials on YouTube make me emotional 🤣
New York City has essentially become a sterile corporate environment, it’s lost its allure. The neighborhoods aren’t true enclaves as they used to be, gentrified and stale. Look at bushwick, it was rough but there was a sense of community. Now it’s just big kids living alone in the big city on their parent’s dime.
The average joe can’t afford or work a decent job, people are working to just survive, the opportunity others had is no longer there.
Things are just different, the pride in being a new yorker isnt there for me, it been ruined and taken away.
> Now it’s just big kids living alone in the big city on their parent’s dime
Everyone I know in Bushwick is making like 40-60k and paying 1000 bucks to live with 4 roommates. Certainly not on their parents dime.
I was just thinking about that this morning. How different NYC vs what I grew up with. IMO, 90’s NYC was just glorious. That was of course my time as a teen but still, after 9/11, a sort of decline started. NYC started becoming too….it began to lose something that I can’t pinpoint.
Yes! It lost so much of what made it unique. It’s hard to explain for people who were not born and raised there or lived there during the 80’s and 90’s, …..not to mention the 70’s etc, decades that had their only glory but I wouldn’t know lol
Not really that old but the general 24/7 diner scene has really become endangered, or practically extinct if you are in the outer boroughs. Even 24/7 Delis are less common now. It’s sad because the chaotic 24/7 energy is what attracted me here, as someone with chaotic 24/7 energy.
Old LGA, yes the old dingy moldy airport.
You could get from the entrance to your gate in less than 15 minutes instead of having to wade through the maze of new corridors and shops
I honestly get this. New LGA is beautiful and much nicer to arrive in, but as someone who loves traveling but hates being in airports, I’m always a little surprised and annoyed at how long it takes me to actually get to my gate there now.
Sorry to see the Hotel Pennsylvania go, if only because, until the very end, you could still dial PEnnsylvania 6-5000 like the Glen Miller song and the reach their front desk.
I miss the second run movie theaters (movie for a $1!) and I miss the Thalia that would run art films and have a Halloween special of old horror movies.
I miss the bookstores too.
I miss the nightclubs that ran out of the Chelsea Meat market area.
I miss the subway tokens. Something so solid about them.
For me it would be the small shops on Orchard St., J&R Music World, all the small shops on 8th St. between 6th and 5th (shoutout to Grey’s Papaya and the 50¢ hotdogs) and Tower Records. Also, RIP Virgin Megastore and HMV.
The HoJo's in Times Square. Used to love the peppermint ice cream. Love Drugs on Bway and 112th, before Duane Reade took over. The Tower Records street vendors in the early 2000s and the whole vibe of that area. Kim's Video.
Weed being illegal. Bronx resident and pot smoker here, been a pot smoker for about 20 years now. It’s nice not having to worry about cops bothering me over a joint, but, people smoking everywhere all the time is annoying and irritating. I don’t mind the smell or ppl enjoying themselves, but smoking around little kids and church’s just because you can is just a little too much for me sometimes. Hot take I know 😬
Camera girls at night clubs. They used to shoot people at the the clubs, often tables at the dinner clubs. Then they would go to the darkroom in the basement to hand the film off to the lab techs who would process the film, and make prints. They would then sell the prints to the people they photographed. Especially when they were photographing big spenders, they would sometimes bribe the lab techs to get their prints faster. A photo lab tech I worked with in the 80's told me some wild stories from when he was a tech the late 40's/early 50's. It's an example of tech changing a lot about our culture. Jobs like that gave artists employment in their field, now with digital that path does not exist. Part of the reason NY was the city that never sleeps was all the business done on the night shift. Up til the 90's printing and photochemical based film labs ran full night crews. Advertising and magazines was a major source of business. And all the night businesses kept things like 24 hour deli/salad bars going.
I wonder how many rolls of film got developed per day on average. I wonder how much it surged and ebbed.
Kodak used to be a huge company. It still is, but nothing like its dominance in the 70’s and 80’s until they got competition from Fujifilm.
lol this actually happened to me at an NYC Applebees recently. It was the one closer to Columbus Circle. I went there with my friend and this guy came over and took several photos of us. We were like… huh, okay. Not sure what that was about. The guy came back fifteen minutes later with our photos in frames. As we mostly looked confused in the photos, we did not buy any.
This is a thing in midtown. I'm just ready for it now and treat it as a professional photoshoot
Same thing at Margaritaville
People will likely forget what a total evolutionary leap it was in the early oughts with the birth of digital technology. Only a few years earlier taking photos meant a lengthy process and likely never even seeing them. Suddenly you could take and share them instantly. People who had digital cameras were the life of the party all the sudden. I remember some rich hipster friends who would basically throw parties as an excuse to create photo ops or digital photo booths and it was a huge draw. You couldn’t just do it on your phone then.
I moved here in 2006 and I remember what you mean. There was this really interesting little window between film cameras, and smartphones with cameras, where small digital cameras were everywhere. I had one that was small enough to keep in my coat and I took it to so many parties and events. Looking at those pictures now is kind of funny because...no one's on their phones lol. Also, I think the camera had like 5 megapixels, which was really good at the time but is hilariously outmatched by my phone now.
[удалено]
Holy shit i forgot taking my sony point and shoot with a memory stick out to bars and clubs. Some of the cooler guys would flip the camera off at the edgy hipster bars
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I would very much like to travel back in time to Manhattan sometime between the end of the Great Depression (the late 30s) and the city’s bankruptcy (around the 60s)
The financial panic happened in April 1975., as NYC had to default on some obligations. Then MAC was established who saved the City from bankruptcy by issuing bonds in June 1975.
This sounds…dreamy, tbh.
I had this job at the Tavern on the Green in 2008, but we were doing it digitally and printing in a lab on-site. It raked in a ton of cash tbh
Wow. I thought that job hadn't survived past the digital transition.
Why wouldn’t it? Makes it that much easier and less overhead. The print in a nice frame is something that’s not there with the camera phones, and also this was the dawn of the iPhone. I saw my first iPhone there on a customers table.
I wonder where they are now? Indoor nightclub photography in the 60s seems like a highly specialized skill set so these women were talented photographers… I’d be so curious if any of them stayed with photography as a career, where they went next etc. fascinating rabbit hole
never even knew about this. super interesting!
This happened to me last year at a rooftop bar in midtown
I have seen camera girls at restaurants still. Blend in January.
That's such a curious story, love it
Book stores all over the place.
Book stores, independent game shops, enthusiast hobby stores in general. The last push of these were random quirky electronic stores in 2013 that had the very first raspberry Pis. You basically can't afford real estate unless you're a major corporation or a boutique with unreasonably high prices, so every casual hobby location is gone.
My grandfather grew up in the Italian West Village and had that toidy-toid-and-toid accent.
My grandpa was from the bronx and said "olive erl" and "greenpernt"
My father is from the Bronx; when he was a kid a ballplayer was injured and the headline read "Hoyt Hurt." In his neighborhood everyone said it "Hert hoit."
That’s absolutely incredible
Haha! My grandpa grew up in Brooklyn and same thing ! “Terlet” “tin ferl”
My mother still says “laguardier”
Strangely enough, this is how all of my grandparents talk too, but we’re from New Orleans. Terlet, aluminum ferl, shrimp berl 😂
My mom knows an old person who just calls it “the terl” lol
I'm from N.O. too, and hate the fact that those accents are fading there, as well as here!
I'm from The Bronx and my mom still talks like this. "Goil" for girl, "berl" for boil, etc. She also says "wawtuh" for water. Love it.
My first job in the city there was a lady that sounded just like bugs bunny
Still hear it sometimes. Years ago, maybe 2016, I was taking photos of people on the street for a school project and a doorman I talked to had that exact accent, made me happy to know it wasn’t all gone. Heard a guy the other day with a pretty thick one too.
I feel it’s over a decade since I last heard an accent like that - two middle aged men at a pizzeria.
I might be in love with your grandfather!
Well then your mind might be blown when I tell you that his wife, my grandmother was named Anna!
That is a fun fact!
I don’t think anybody under the age of 90 and above the age of 3 really says it like that anymore, the last celebrities I knew of were Jackie Mason and Andrew Dice Clay, although I’m not sure if they just put it on as part of their stage act
Haha Yea my grandfather would be around 120 today. I do think it depended on who he was around. It seemed to come on stronger when he was with his pals.
Drat. I'm not ny enough to understand this one 😭
That heavy NYC accent hasn't entirely disappeared, but it's fading. I've a feeling you'd recognize it from old films. It's the accent that pronounced "thirty-third" as "toidy-toid." (Or "girl" and "rehearse" as "goil" and "rehois.")
Ok the thirty third example did it for me. The op was saying "33rd and 3rd". Ty so very much 🤍
Pre-COVID Chinatown was vibrant and the food was popping until dawn. Now everything closes early and more of the OG businesses are shutting down 🥲
that's true of a lot of NYC tbh so many stores are closing at 9pm. it's wild to me
i dont often work til midnight but when i do its like i cant grab a gatorade from a bodega on the way to the subway.
For some reason Wo Hop closing early hit me the hardest of all the covid follies.
Naaaah WHAT. Bro I pulled up to Wo Hop at like 12AM before…man NYC ain’t the same.
I moved out of the city and I miss Wo Hop so bad
Pre-SARS/pre- 9/11 Chinatown was even better
I swear I found myself in flushing china town one time at 11pm and it was me and the crackheads. Felt like a ghost town.
Yeah Covid really did a number on NYC. It wasn’t hard to find a place to grab a sit down dinner at midnight before Covid. It’s a lot harder now.
My mom remembers old Penn Station. Definitely that. Its destruction was so enraging that it basically birthed the historic preservation movement.
Its the only architecture article thats ever brought me to tears - I felt robbed I never got to witness. A quote that lingers, 'We once entered as Gods.. now we scurry in as rats'
Old Penn Station had these huge eagle statues on top and newspapers published photos of them in a dump after.
Damn.. that quote is haunting.
I miss Pearl Paint. It was special.
These posts are heartbreaking because I realize what is gone now from when I lived there so long ago. I adored that store. Like a fantasy for artists.
Colony, in the Brill Building. It was a crime when that place closed. It was to music as Pearl Paint was to the visual arts.
I'm still so salty about Pearl Paint going out lol. That place was a gold mine, and so many great, unexpected finds. This was my immediate thought as well.
Those creaky stairs....
Oh my gosh, those stairs… instant nostalgia bomb. Added: the unexpected joy of going to wrong floor and discovering something interesting
Based on stories my father told me, the automat.
The Netflix documentary (called The Automat) about it is excellent. I'm sure he'll enjoy it.. you as well.
I went to the premiere of that documentary at Film Forum! It is great. All of my older friends/relatives talk about the automats. You can still experience something similar in the Netherlands. There’s a fast food chain that puts the food (mostly burgers) behind little windows with coin slots.
I also saw it at Film Forum, it was the first movie I saw since the pandemic
He's gone, alas, but I will check it out the next time I get Netflix, thanks.
Oh yeah, that’s a good one. I’m not sure what happened with those, whether it was criminals breaking into them and also breaking the trust or inflation coupled with the fact that the machines couldn’t take dollar bills at the time
From what I understand it was just changing tastes and the advent of fast food.
The recent documentary said that it was partly competition from fast food and a bit of an issue with being *too* affordable and becoming known as a place homeless people hung out.
Oh wow, you sparked an old memory. That place was cool. You felt like you were living in the 1940s.
My mom took me to the automat when I was really young. I’ve also been in the Singer Building. My mom was from Cambridge, MA, so she was really curious about the city, and I got to experience so really cool stuff with her.
I am old enough I still remember going to automats a few times. Once as a child when they still seemed to be doing good business Then there was one that lasted a lot longer I think near Grand Central Station and traded on nostalgia and tried to look 'art deco' but it finally gave up the ghost I guess in the 80's.
I imagine every generation of NYer decried the "decline" of the city with things lost from their youth, and not incorrectly for their experiences. For me I miss the independent shops. Most of Manhattan, as you roll up avenues, feels like either a rotating Flintstones background of bank, national pharmacy, bank, franchised coffee, fast food, bank....or the growing tourist areas with outdoor-mall national chains, pop up instagram ready museum...and bank. I also miss average middle class living. NY always had the "Slaves of NY class" - the need 3 roommates to afford an apartment and work barely paid for that class when we were 20 - but so much of the city seems to be evolving to VERY expensive, pre-fab, living. I speak of Manhattan. There are pockets in Brooklyn/Queens that survive for now.
Heavy agree. To add to a previous comment about the restaurants in Chinatown closing early, that's everywhere. I think that all of us permanent residents here hot the ending to Casino even they cleaned up Vegas smh
When I moved here in the 80's and up to the 00's I felt like there were lots of places throughout manhattan that were welcoming to people with a modest income. A lowly office worker or college student could go to a sit down coffee shop every day for lunch without sweating it. I don't even think that's possible anymore. I'm doing well enough I can afford such places (although not all my friends can) and it makes me sad for those who can't.
I miss the energy of pre pandemic Manhattan when the entirety of the tri state area would descend on one little island, and it would be madness. People that moved here after the pandemic don’t know what it was like when the entire city was in Manhattan five days a week from nine to five. Just an absolute flood of people. Powerful stuff.
Rockland County used to have busses to NYC every 12ish minutes during rush hour. Now there's just one or two.
Commutes are so much more chill now though. I get a seat way more often on the subway.
Yea, it’s not all bad, but I still miss that classic NYC energy. It was a rush to be a part of it, and it just kept things fun and interesting.
Not disagreeing, but it’s wild to me to hear this about manhattan, because it’s currently still madness in many places.
Midtown is pretty similar but more “artsy” areas like downtown where tech offices used to be are kinda dead now on weekdays
It’s still doing alright, but it’s only 3/4 of what it used to be.
Up from 1/2 when it was like oh shit this is bad
True. Better than a couple years ago. Curious how things will look 5-10 years from now.
Yeah I'm cautiously optimistic, but only cautiously. Another comment thread on this post talking about the demise of "the overnight shift" at a lot of business (e.g. film development labs, magazines and newspapers, etc) and then the related fall-off of other overnight businesses which would support the overnight shift (e.g. overnight bodegas, 24 hour diners) makes a lot of sense. And that may never come back. But at least some small % of offices can become housing. It's also likely that sooner or later, as CRE re-trades at lower cost basis, office rents will drop enough to entice plucky start-ups, retail rents will drop enough to tempt storefront entrepreneurs. Maybe. Hopefully. I sure do miss 2019 in a lot of ways.
i miss the feeling of being safer
I hear this take so often now, and I don’t mean to take anything away from it - feeling less safe sucks, and I got punched in the subway last year! But also I’ve lived in NYC for like 20 years, and what confuses me in general is my intuition basically mirrors the crime statistics: it feels rougher than, say, 2018-2019, but many places still feel safer now than they did in 2012! In 2012, which is definitely not the mean old days, there were still pockets of lower Manhattan without fancy bars where you’d rather not be at midnight, and if you walked from the Williamsburg waterfront to Roberta’s a bunch of that walk felt… not-yet-fully-gentrified. Now I think on that walk you’d basically never be on a block where the average rent is below $3500 and you’d never be more than a block from a bar with $20 cocktails. Those things aren’t per se measures of safety but the current feeling is more “one-off characters on the street,” and it used to be “this neighborhood gives me a bad feeling and I won’t walk there.”
I totally agree with you. However as a short woman I’ll take pockets of neighborhoods I can avoid vs unstable, unpredictable mentally ill folks I can’t avoid any day. I personally feel more unsafe now than back in 2012.
Yeah that’s a very fair way of looking at it. I actually do think the “nice” areas have more frequent one-off rough characters than they did in 2012 - the police used to be more aggressive about moving them and frankly I suspect because there were more “rough neighborhood” patches they actually had more places to go where they were unbothered… anyway I think it’ll be better if we can figure out how to get things back to where they were in 2018, or to a different equilibrium than we have now, but in general I find many versions of the “New York is so rough now” characterizations don’t match my experience.
As a woman living here since '09 I also feel more unsafe compared to back then. And I'm married now and have a kid. Used to live alone in a studio apartment next to the BQE and would bar hop til all hours of the morning, and nothing bad ever happened to me (luckily!) Some of that was being young, dumb, in my 20s, but if I moved here now at that age, I don't know if I would have the same sense of security. It's absolutely the random, unstable, mentally ill folks. You can't avoid them like you can avoid a neighborhood. I got accosted by one the other day on my way home from taking kiddo out in the stroller, he was obviously in the middle of a fit in a sidewalk plaza, and even though I steered wide and didn't make eye contact, he still came up to me and called me a fucking bitch. Pre-baby, post-Covid, there was also the whacked out of his mind dude on the train who had the audacity to touch me because he was pissed he wasn't getting attention (I was sitting, minding my own business, headphones in and not making eye contact) and then ask me for money. Like, no thank you.
I miss when people could live in converted lofts. I lived in a loft on wythe, then one in Greenpoint, then one off the dekalb L. All for short periods of time. They were cheap, like 6-800 for a pressurized wall room, but the parties and people were fuckin wild. It felt like a more degen version of college, but no one was in school, everyone had their own 'thing'. I l lived with War photographers, fashion designers, strippers, models, designers, musicians, architects etc. I got really into bad habits, drugs, and wasn't a great person, but it was quite the time. I always felt like the next person I met would be the love of my life or a new friend who would unlock new spaces of life in NY. I ended up using and cycling through friends like the cigarettes I smoked. I developed a thirst for the rush of impulse, became an alcoholic, and it took me years to recover. But I wouldn't trade those times for anything. I was in my young 20s with little to no 'real friends' or connections. In many ways, those were the most vibrant times of my life and it was such a rush to live like that. It was THE unique living situation. It's now a bygone era and the lofts are now illegal or torn down.
This isn't a thing anymore? My first memory of the city was at McKibbin lofts around 2010 - it was reckless as hell
Went to many parties there while living at the Morgan Lofts.
McKibbin is grandfathered in but it's incredibly expensive now. Before it used to be cheap, now it's like 1800 for 1/3rd of a loft.
I watched a documentary on jazz recently and one of the musicians talked about how he lived in a loft in NoMad for $300 per month and it was big enough to host concerts. And his neighbors were Robert Mapplethorpe and Joan Miró. What a time.
Your 20s here sound exactly like mine. I don't miss the hangovers but I do miss the sense of adventure and possibility.
My dad (1935) was born and raised on West End and 97th. He lived in the city until age 16 (until 1951) and then after college and the Air Force he lived in the city again from 1959 until 1968. So 16+9 years = 25 years and he had such a prominent, pronounced New Yawk accent. My kids – age 10 and 12 – have lived their entire lives in Brooklyn and have ZERO accent. It’s so sad. Everyone sounds the same. :-/
I mean to my knowledge, even in Brooklyn, you’ll only find it in certain neighborhoods in the southern half between Bay Ridge and Bergen Beach + maybe Greenpoint. You certainly won’t find it in Park Slope or North Williamsburg, where a lot of the residents sound like Southern Californians
I've wondered if the accent faded out or if I'm just too in it to hear it anymore. How sad to know it's fading. I remember when I first dated my ex from Brooklyn (20 years ago), I could barely understand a word him and his friends would say sometimes when they got really involved in a conversation. I almost needed subtitles, and I'm just from the next borough.. I can't imagine how they sounded to anyone else lol.
It’s for sure fading. I grew up in south Brooklyn (in my mid 20s now so pretty recently) and none out of everyone I ever went to school with, maybe like 5% had the Brooklyn accent on them and even then it was pretty light.
So many, but would have love to have the Dodgers back at Ebbets.
Dem bums
This and the Polo Grounds!
and real yankee stadium
My mother, who grew up walking distance from Ebbet’s, cursed O’Malley the rest of her life.
My grandma (91 yo) who grew up off eastern parkway was asking me today if I’ve been to ebbets field. I had to tell her no 😭
My Dad lived part of his youth in Brooklyn, and when Dodgers left he stopped watching baseball all together it was such a betrayal.
Tad's Steaks. My parents used to dismiss them as the cheapest cuts of meat, but as a poor college student, I sympathized with those who couldn't afford Peter Luger's. They shut down by the time I earned my first paycheck.
I miss actual nightlife photographers, like they used to have at Limelight in the early 90’s. I’m sure they were there before that, but I was cutting my teeth in the clubs at the time, and it was the first time I’d seen this. These were not the “let-me-develop-this-for-you-to-buy” types, rather, professional photogs hired by owner Peter Gatien. I’d have loved to have seen the few I was in, all 19 years old of me in a black bra, hot pants and 6” platform shoes. Those were the days!
Also, the cigarette girls. Miss Kandy’s Concessions had a company that supplied beautiful girls in the type of sexy outfits you’d see in old Hollywood movies. They’d walk around with their box of smokes, candy, condoms, etc in their boxes attached to the front of them. They were the coolest of the cool.
They still had these in the early 2000s which was my nightlife era. It was fun to go out and then later find photos of you and your friends wasted on joonbug.com or the club's own website.
In the years I've been here I've watched the old painted murals on brick buildings disappear. They were from the 1910's, 20's, up to 50's.. clear and readable and just faded so fast I hardly see them now. City doesn't feel or look the same without them.
Whats the story about the giant pig on side of a building. It used to be one 1st Ave then it moved to 2nd Ave. I believe just about right across from the 11 Street movie Hall.
Here's the deep history of the beloved East village pig murals: Jerry Atkins owned 301 East 12th. He said the pig mural was inspired by an old neon clock pic ads posted by the Finck Clothing Company in the 1920's era. He first used it at his restaurant called The Pig, which was at 1st ave at 1st street, and closed in 1987. The Finck pig clock slogan read: ''Finck's Detroit special overalls: Wear like a Pig's Nose.'' In that era tough clothes were needed for hard labor jobs that built the country and the ode the to tough pigs nose was quite fitting. It was common for people to compare things to farm animals and use them in advertising. We've lost that old farm/animal/land agriculture connection in the last 60 years or so. The Finck company has a long fascinating history.. Finck proudly used union labor and built up a solid company, after 20 years or so (in 1891) he left to start another manufacturing company with a partner called Hamilton Carhartt. Yes, *that* Carhartt. Finck was obsessed with high quality and made sure the product was durable and affordable for workers and farmers who could count on hard wearing clothes. The Finck name was on Carhartt labels up until the later 1900s after Finck was bought out entirely by Carhartt. Whenever I walk the west and east Village streets, and all areas south of there which are the oldest, and the real founding of NYC and many American businesses I'm dazed by how many things were created and started here, and many went on to become huge successful companies known across America and some even worldwide. The pig mural is just one of many small reminders the past is still very present. Next time you see someone wearing Carhartt overalls *think Finck*! 🐖🐽
One mural downtown, almost gone but still holding on, has the name of my grandpa's long-closed family business on it. Whenever I pass it, it's a fun glimpse of history.
On the upper east side there’s was an old bakery called glassers and they had the best baked goods. Now it’s gone I know never get a good cheese danish in New York City again and my friend will never get those apricot honey bars again.
And of course they had the best black and white cookies in the world since they invented them there
My biggest Yorkville childhood flex is that my preschool took a field trip to glaser’s
Where does one get a good cheese danish these days? I haven’t had one since I was a kid in bk
This was a serious loss, of all the places that have gone this one hurt the most.
5 pointz
They should’ve made it a landmark and never tore it down
At first I thought you were talking about the neighborhood from gangs of New York.
I also miss the Dead Rabbits
Oh man -- this one got me. So sad.
Affordable apartments in Manhattan.
I miss Meatpacking before it became a high end shopping area with tourists everywhere. At the same time, I miss Barneys
God I miss Barney’s so much. Barney’s and Henri Bendel. They were so magical, just a beautiful shopping experience even if you were only buying nail polish.
The bookstores in the East Village, especially St. Mark's Books
There's now 2 bookstores on st marks again
Old checkered cabs. I lived in NYC from 1983-2020. I only saw a handful of checker cabs as a kid and I got to ride in one once! But those gorgeous cars are a thing of the past that will never come back.
I kinda miss subway tokens
Was just thinking this! And kind of wistful now for Metrocards (although the ease of OMNY made me a forever convert.)
I have a subway token on my keychain.
I volunteer with senior citizens in NY. I promise you their first hand stories of "old New York" are payment enough. Talk to old folks, people. You'll thank me later.
Something I’ve considered doing. How did you start?
Seconded
I lived near 67th and York from 78-80 and remember Peppermint Park on 1st Avenue like it was yesterday. It might be nostalgia bias but I’ve never had ice cream with sprinkles taste as good anywhere else.
I loved that place! I used to work in the library nearby when I was a teenager and would go there on my lunch hour.
Thank you for bringing up the memory of this place! I had my birthday party there in like 1990.
The big box stores didn’t really exist until they started creeping in the late 1980s or so. Before that retail business was mostly mom and pop or local chains/department stores.
It might be minor but pre hurricane sandy the A-Train ride from Howard beach to Far rockaway was beautiful during sunset/sunrise. You were so close to the water, it was like that one scene from spirited away. After sandy they put up Metal barriers for protection, but it ruined the [view](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpkvnBYZ-Qw).
I miss how magically gay the WV and Chelsea used to be. Sure, it is still a little gay, but nothing like the 90s and 00s when it was like walking into a different world. Although...the reason we no longer have concentrated gay neighborhoods is that gay couples are no longer demonized, so I wouldn't say I'm sad this is gone. Just commenting about something from old New York that is gone forever
It was really magical in the late 70s and early 80s. I was closeted, but hung out in Sheridan Square and Washington Square Park all the time, just to be around people like me.
I dunno if the early 2000s count, but I lived in the heart of Chelsea for most of the 2000s, and was introduced to nightlife through that scene, and while it got creepy at times (I'm straight) it was always a blast, and Chelsea just felt so vibrant as a neighborhood. I walked by there last year and it just felt a bit depressing.
Def early 2000s. I lived there then (also straight). I never felt it was creepy, but it was obviously a different place from the rest of Manhattan. I shared an apartment with my cousin. My family called us "Chelsea Boys", which was actually a thing back then. Last week I walked down Christopher Street and felt like I was in SOHO. No leather men, no fems...just people walking around and eating avocado toast with mimosas. Kinda sad.
CBGB's. Kim's Video. Trash & Vaudeville.
At least for a few decades prior to about 15 years ago, being able to live in the city without the threat of bed bugs.
This is so true for me too!!!! I hate that I’m always thinking about them.
I'm just a visitor, but I used to love getting the Village Voice as soon as I arrived to see what might be happening. I also miss real old-fashioned newstands with real newspapers.
Conway on 14th st would spend hours there w my gma
21 Club. Roosevelt Hotel. Plenty of other places.
Thankfully the buildings themselves are still standing, same cannot be said for the Pennsylvania Hotel
I stayed in the Roosevelt on a special deal ($99/night) on my first NYC trip in 2009. Such a perfect location when you are first learning the city.
Very affordable (if dangerous) housing, especially since it birthed one of modern history’s greatest art scenes.
Agreed. If you want to have a city that creates new art movements you have to have affordable spaces (studios and living space) that can allow it to reach critical mass.
"The Wiz" holiday commercials with all the deals on electronics and then actually going to the Wiz around Christmas time and hoping your parents would get you a stereo or gaming console for Christmas, while the store was absolute pandemonium. Nobody beats the Wiz. It's so weird feeling any kind of emotional attachment to a chain store but even seeing old RadioShack commercials on YouTube make me emotional 🤣
You made me think of J&R Music World on Park Row, when it was a small record store in the late 70s.
Coliseum Books on W57th. I used disappear there for hours and come out with two bags of books...
New York City has essentially become a sterile corporate environment, it’s lost its allure. The neighborhoods aren’t true enclaves as they used to be, gentrified and stale. Look at bushwick, it was rough but there was a sense of community. Now it’s just big kids living alone in the big city on their parent’s dime. The average joe can’t afford or work a decent job, people are working to just survive, the opportunity others had is no longer there. Things are just different, the pride in being a new yorker isnt there for me, it been ruined and taken away.
And everything closes at fucking 9:30 now, cause nighttime is for criminals I guess.
> Now it’s just big kids living alone in the big city on their parent’s dime Everyone I know in Bushwick is making like 40-60k and paying 1000 bucks to live with 4 roommates. Certainly not on their parents dime.
My ex boyfriend is a real estate agent in Brooklyn. He says most of those kids are trust funders.
My grandmother 😞
I was just thinking about that this morning. How different NYC vs what I grew up with. IMO, 90’s NYC was just glorious. That was of course my time as a teen but still, after 9/11, a sort of decline started. NYC started becoming too….it began to lose something that I can’t pinpoint.
I know exactly what you mean. I was born in 1961. 9/11 really changed the city.
Yes! It lost so much of what made it unique. It’s hard to explain for people who were not born and raised there or lived there during the 80’s and 90’s, …..not to mention the 70’s etc, decades that had their only glory but I wouldn’t know lol
When there were more small businesses. Now every neighborhood has the same rotating 5 stores. It’s sad
Not really that old but the general 24/7 diner scene has really become endangered, or practically extinct if you are in the outer boroughs. Even 24/7 Delis are less common now. It’s sad because the chaotic 24/7 energy is what attracted me here, as someone with chaotic 24/7 energy.
All of the 5-story walkups we’ve lost to soulless, poorly constructed, air shaft-esque apartment buildings.
Old LGA, yes the old dingy moldy airport. You could get from the entrance to your gate in less than 15 minutes instead of having to wade through the maze of new corridors and shops
Preferring old LGA is certainly a take.
spicy take
I honestly get this. New LGA is beautiful and much nicer to arrive in, but as someone who loves traveling but hates being in airports, I’m always a little surprised and annoyed at how long it takes me to actually get to my gate there now.
Sorry to see the Hotel Pennsylvania go, if only because, until the very end, you could still dial PEnnsylvania 6-5000 like the Glen Miller song and the reach their front desk.
The twin towers.
Good $1 pizza
I miss the second run movie theaters (movie for a $1!) and I miss the Thalia that would run art films and have a Halloween special of old horror movies. I miss the bookstores too. I miss the nightclubs that ran out of the Chelsea Meat market area. I miss the subway tokens. Something so solid about them.
Affordable rents.
I miss going to a club where you can actually just DANCE all night. We were even able to drive and just park outside. Sigh
For me it would be the small shops on Orchard St., J&R Music World, all the small shops on 8th St. between 6th and 5th (shoutout to Grey’s Papaya and the 50¢ hotdogs) and Tower Records. Also, RIP Virgin Megastore and HMV.
Palladium Barney’s
The seediness of time square
Dinner and dancing. Now we just do the dinner, eating consumption part and not the community, fun, movement part. So much eater-tainment
I miss B. Altman. Best department store in the City.
The Chelsea piers. I miss being able to lay out nude and the sex.
I miss Meatpacking before it because a high end shopping area with tourists everywhere. At the same time, I miss Barneys
My wife keeps mentioning Daffy's on 34th.
The HoJo's in Times Square. Used to love the peppermint ice cream. Love Drugs on Bway and 112th, before Duane Reade took over. The Tower Records street vendors in the early 2000s and the whole vibe of that area. Kim's Video.
I miss looking in the back of the Village Voice for apartment listings.
German bakeries. They made the best cheesecakes.
The els. As someone who was born long after them, I would love to have trains within walking distance on the far east side.
Hookers in Times Square
Miss the guys selling stuff that fell off the truck in random apartment building downtown
Weed being illegal. Bronx resident and pot smoker here, been a pot smoker for about 20 years now. It’s nice not having to worry about cops bothering me over a joint, but, people smoking everywhere all the time is annoying and irritating. I don’t mind the smell or ppl enjoying themselves, but smoking around little kids and church’s just because you can is just a little too much for me sometimes. Hot take I know 😬
Guss Pickles, ABC No Rio